Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection
By Arnie Kotler
4/5
()
About this ebook
Related to Inner Gold
Related ebooks
Balancing Heaven and Earth: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lying with the Heavenly Woman: Understanding and Integrating the Femini Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of Mascul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden: Understanding the Wounded Feeling Functi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Little Book on the Human Shadow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Femininity Lost and Regained Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5He: Understanding Masculine Psychology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contentment: A Way to True Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Looking for Gold - A Year in Jungian Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She: Understanding Feminine Psychology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Whole: Jung's Equation for Realizing God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Healing Imagination: The Meeting of Psyche and Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Personality. The Individuation Process in the Light of C. G. Jung's Typology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReceiving Woman - Studies in the Psychology and Theology of the Feminine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Embracing Our Selves: The Voice Dialogue Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soul Reflections: Living a More Conscious and Meaningful Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cinderella and Her Sisters - The Envied and the Envying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body as Shadow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealing the Wounded God: Finding Your Personal Guide to Individuation and Beyond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wounded Woman: Healing the Father-Daughter Relationship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Treasure Within: An Archetypal Unfolding to Your Infinite Potential Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSacred Selfishness: A Guide to Living a Life of Substance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Myth of Meaning in the Works of C. G. Jung Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Language of Dreams: A Jungian Approach to Dreams, Dream Interpretation, and Spiritual Dreamwork Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Self-Improvement For You
Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges: 60 Habit-Forming Programs to Live an Infinitely Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Not Dying You're Just Waking Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think and Grow Rich (Illustrated Edition): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Inner Gold
18 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really good book... especially if you are a mentor or aspire to be. To me the attitude towards projection feels right and I think it is an excellent metaphor... it resonates! I read this book a few times with some fellow therapists and I have also used it as sort of a devotional to remind me of the importance of handling matters of the Soul like gold.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The start is good, the rest is bogus, kind of fiction and authors own limited views, this book is a waste of time, not very well explained, all he talks about himself.
Book preview
Inner Gold - Arnie Kotler
CHAPTER ONE
Projecting Your Gold
My first analyst, Fritz Kunkel, said that there are three ways to learn psychology: Read Greek mythology, read Jung, and watch. Watching is best.
I learn so much from watching, and one of the things I observe most carefully is the exchange of inner, alchemical gold. Inner gold is the highest value in the human psyche. It is our soul, the Self, the innermost part of our being. It is us at our best, our twenty-four-karat gift to ourselves. Everyone has inner gold. It isn’t created, but it does have to be discovered. When I speak about gold this way, I am also speaking about God. These are two ways to describe the mystery.
When we awaken to a new possibility in our lives, we often see it first in another person. A part of us that has been hidden is about to emerge, but it doesn’t go in a straight line from our unconscious to becoming conscious. It travels by way of an intermediary, a host. We project our gold onto someone, and suddenly we’re consumed with that person. The first inkling of this is when the other person appears to be so luminous that he (or she) glows in the dark. That’s a sure sign that something is changing in us and we are projecting our gold onto the other person.
When we observe the things we attribute to the other person, we see our own depth and meaning. Our gold goes first from us to them. Eventually it will come back to us. Projecting our inner gold offers us the best chance for an advance in consciousness.
The Medieval Mind
In the Middle Ages, the work of alchemy was to produce gold from base metals. There were charlatans trying to make actual gold, but the best alchemists were those working with the gold of the spirit.
Alchemy comes from a time when the medieval mind was at its highest flowering. In medieval times, people did not divide reality into inner and outer or even acknowledge a difference between the two. For them, inside and outside were the same. To accomplish all that we have today, we’ve had to split the world in two. We couldn’t be this competitive with a medieval mind. But the price we pay for our accomplishments is loneliness and an inability to love. When we’re in love, we are our beloved. I spent many years trying to help people differentiate between inner and outer: You are you, and I am I. Your husband is your husband. We have not yet completed the transition to the modern mind. Many psychological problems are a failure to differentiate between out there and in here.
According to the teachings of India, the external world is maya, illusion. It is considered illusory because it is actually within, not out there. We see only the ten thousand things
that we project. In ancient China, Lao Tzu dreamed of a butterfly, and for the rest of his life he didn’t know whether he had dreamed the butterfly or the butterfly had dreamed him.
In the West, gold is the symbol of the Self, while in the East, the symbol of our inner divinity is the diamond. In their interior meanings, they are the same, but the images are different. Diamonds are the hardest matter on earth—unearthly, celestial, and impersonal. Gold is much softer, a matter of relationship, the Self as related. I think we’re lucky to have gold to cope with.
The Glow in Tour Eyes
When we see that we have given our spiritual gold to someone to hold for us, there are several ways we might respond. We could go to him or her and say, The meaning of my life has suddenly appeared in the glow in your eyes. May I tell you about it?
This is another way of saying, I have given you my inner gold. Will you carry it for me for a while?
But we rarely say and do things that directly. Instead, we stand across the room, turn our back on him, and feel totally frightened, stumbling and carrying on in odd ways. We meet at the coffee pot during the morning break at work and banter with each other, speaking all kinds of nonsense. We joke and laugh, and an animated play goes on. Then, when we head back to work, we feel energized and brightened for the day. It was not the coffee. It